Tag Archives: beautiful wild horse photography

Photographs of Onaqui Wild Horses – Aug – Great Sunset

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Lately every visit to the Onaqui seems to be better than the last! This week we found the North herd at the North base of Davis Mountain. We spent a few hours with them and left to find the South herd. we found them near Simpson Springs and photographed them till late. Then we decided to go back to the North herd to see where they were watering. Wow! What a treat! They had moved to the main road and were headed to the trough watering hole just as the sun was setting! We were in Heaven! Another fantastic day with this magnificent herd.

two wild horse mustangs in a huge fight

HOT Trip To Onaqui In July

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It has been almost too hot to visit the Onaqui these past few weeks. We decided to forego the heat and headed out to visit the herd. Luckily we found the North herd watering at the Sheep Trough. We photographed them for a while and then headed to find the South herd and to cool off in the air-conditioned vehicle. We spotted them on their way to water at Simpson Springs. We got to Simpson Springs just ahead of them coming in. It was a great sight, but using a long lens really amplified the “heat waves” destroying any sharp images.

The herd soon left Simpson Springs and we then drove back to the North Herd. Unfortunately they were now grazing where not roads were close so we called it a day and headed back home. Overall a good but short trip. The Onaqui never disappoint.

Onaqui Wild Horses – 27 June

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Wow! What a trip to photograph the Onaqui herd. The skies were fantastic all day long, lighting was just perfect. Even ran into an old friend (human, not horse). One of the best trips of the year. Apologies in advance for all of the images, just couldn’t thin them out any more.

The HUGE bitemark image is a photograph of Genesis.  He is part of Moondrinkers band.  In fact, Genesis is the son of Moondrinker and it was Moondrinker that bit all the way through his hide.  Moondrinker had Genesis by the hide and pushed his son for nearly 30 yards running at full steam through a small ravine!  I wish I had better images of the actual fight, but those images didn’t make the cut.  Both of them drew blood!

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Onaqui Wild Horses – Nov/Dec

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I have had several visits to the Onaqui but haven’t gotten around to posting. Here are photos from a couple of recent visits. Lighting was very different between trips, horses very hard to find.

wild mustangs, wild horse photography, photograph of wild horses

Photographing Wild Horses in Utah’s West Desert – Late May

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I’m often asked if I ever get tired of photographing this herd of Wild Horses. The simple answer is N E V E R! Every trip is different. Different lighting, different foregrounds, different backgrounds, the horses have different attitudes. This trip was all about dark skies and rich lighting.

A few posts ago (the one with a lot of dust and wind) I felt that many of the photographs looked better in that very warm sepia tone. Another post a few weeks ago it didn’t feel like many of the photographs looked better in any form of black and white. On this trip to the Onaqui, even as I was taking some photographs, I said to myself, “this scene is meant to be in black and white”. I tried several of these scenes in the warm sepia tone but it just wasn’t what I saw in my mind’s eye. I saw dark, dramatic skies in a deep selenium tone. I hope you agree…

Onaqui wild horse 2020 foal

More Wild Horse Photographs for April – Lots of 2020 Foals

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Here is the final batch of photo’s from my April trip to photograph the Onaqui Herd of Wild Horses. Several spectacular new foals. I think I have a new favorite foal! Hope you enjoy!  I can’t wait to see what the foals that belong to the South herd look like!

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Photographs of Onaqui Herd April

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Had a short trip to the herd a few weeks ago. Found the North herd near the trough watering hole. What a sight! Horses everywhere. Lots of new foals (too many), but it was great to see them having such a great time. Went to find the South herd. Only a few horses on the flat, went up to the upper watering hole, nothing there. Then I noticed some movement a couple of miles south and East. There they were. Unfortunately not time to get there before sunset so I will have to plan on seeing them in a few weeks. This is only a small portion of my photographs. These wild horses are such a pleasure to photograph. More coming soon.

Onaqui Wild Horse Herd – February

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As usual, the Onaqui herd never disappoints. We located several family bands just below Davis Mountain. The antelope (pronghorns) must be migrating back from their winter range because we saw a couple of herds that had nearly 50 antelope in them. Then we set out to find the rest of the “North” herd. We found them herd several miles North of Davis Mountain at the top of the foothills. We have seen the herd in this area once before. We named the valley “Dead Eagle Valley” for a dead eagle that we found there last spring. As some of the bands came into the valley we were able to position ourselves above them, and Simpson Buttes and the valley East of there is in the background. What a view! Several photographs in this post are panorama’s where I shoot 12-15 separate overlapping photographs in portrait mode and then stitch them together to form a panorama in Lightroom. Then we were able to hike to the opposite side of the valley and had the snow-covered Onaqui Mountains in the background! Wish we had lawn chairs with us, we could have spent the entire day there! We photographed them for several hours in that valley and then proceeded South and West to find the former Cremello band. We found them again near the main watering hole South and West of Simpson Springs. It looks like the black mustang has taken over the band once Ghost and the Cremello were captured, neutered and sold at auction by the BLM. No sign of the colt with one blue and one brown eye, but his mother and her two younger foals were there. I fear he was rounded up with Ghost and the Cremello. A sad thought to have as we left the herd and headed home…

Wild Horse Photography – Wild Horses Running

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On this trip to Utah’s West Desert I was specifically hoping to photograph this herd of wild horses while they were on the run with a long exposure time.  The idea was to blur the background, lets etc., but having some part of the horse(s) sharp and in focus.  It takes a lot of luck and timing to get an acceptable shot.  I have not had a chance to process any of the “normal” photographs from this trip, only those that I liked with the “motion” effect.  We had several other photographers on this shoot, and met a very nice gentleman from Midvale if I remember right.  He knew each and every horse in the herd, knew when they were born, knew who was related to who.  Very impressive!  Another great evening that I will remember for a long time…

Photography of Onaqui Wild Horses and Lightning – July 20

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Wow!  What a trip we had in late July to the Onaqui herd of wild horses in Utah’s West Desert.  The herd was using the Simpson Springs watering hold on the Pony Express route.  They had already left the water when we found them.  After spending a couple of hours photographing them we left to find another herd to photograph at sunset.  We did find the other herd, but they were nearly a mile form the road and we were quickly running out of light.  There was a storm brewing, so we decided to “focus” (pun intended) on photographing the storm and hopefully some lightning.  We were not disappointed!  The lighting was once again remarkable.  The panoramic photograph of the sunset was made by stitching 14 photographs into one.  The panoramic photograph spanned over 180 degrees.  The lightning was another rare opportunity.  No rain and lots of lightning.  What a fantastic trip…